The Graduate School, Brown University March 2009

Guidelines for Dissertation Titles

The dissertation title that appears on the title page that you submit to the Graduate School is the title
that will appear on your transcript and on the Commencement Program. We ask that you follow the title
guidelines presented below in preparing the title page of your dissertation. Note that in the past titles set
in full capitals were accepted. We request that titles be prepared in upper and lower case using the
capitalization rules presented below.

Taken from The Chicago Manual of Style, Fourteenth Edition, 1993, The University of Chicago Press,
sections 7.126-7.131.

Capitalization
The first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating
conjunctions (if, because, as, that, etc.) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions
(and, but, or, for, nor), and prepositions, regardless of length, are lowercased unless they are the first or
last word of the title or subtitle. The to in infinitives is also lowercased. Only acronyms should be set in
full capitals.

The subtitle, following a colon, is capitalized the same way as the main title.

For capitalizing hyphenated and open compounds in titles use the following rule: First elements are
always capitalized; subsequent elements are capitalized unless they are articles, prepositions, coordinating
conjunctions, or such modifiers as flat, sharp, and natural following musical key symbols; second
elements attached by hyphens to prefixes are not capitalized unless they are proper nouns or proper
adjectives. If a compound (other than one with a hyphenated prefix) comes at the end of the title, its final
element, whatever part of speech it may be, is always capitalized.

Examples: Twentieth-Century, Up-to-Date, E-flat Concerto, Self-Sustaining

Spelling
Use and for &, and spell out names of centuries (12th Century becomes Twelfth Century) and other
numbers usually spelled out in text. Be sure to include accents or other special marks on letters used in
non-English words.

Punctuation
Use the final comma in a list (Disease, Pain, and Sacrifice: Toward a Psychology of Suffering).

Examples:
Melodrama Unveiled: American Theater and Culture, 1800-1850
The Labour Party in Perspective – and Twelve Years Later
Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500-900

Titles of Books within Dissertation Titles

Titles and subtitles of published books, pamphlets, proceedings and collections, periodicals, and
newspapers are set in italics.

Super- and Sub-script

Mathematical or chemical names and formulas that appear in the title should retain any super- or sub-
script.